Telus claims Canada-first LAA test on live commercial network

Telus has completed tests of Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) on indoor and outdoor live LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) networks in Canada, claiming a national first. The tests delivered download speeds of 970Mbps indoors and 966Mbps outdoors using 80MHz of aggregated spectrum, and Telus noted that LAA is one of the key LTE-Advanced Pro technologies that will help its networks evolve toward next-generation 5G speeds. LAA technology works by combining licensed wireless spectrum with unlicensed spectrum that is publicly accessible. Telus customers will be able to access LAA speed benefits 'later this year' and LAA deployments will continue through 2017 and into 2018 'in various locations across Canada that have high volumes of pedestrian traffic, including hotels, office buildings, arenas and public outdoor sites', the operator's press release stated.